Strange Beginnings
by leekleekfreak
Summary: Rachel brings Shelby and Will together on accident. Will/Shelby pairing Rachel/Shelby bonding.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N I really wanted another Will/Shelby fanfic so I decided to write one.**

Will POV

Shelby Corcoran was known for being unemotional, hard and impossible to crack, Will knew this, but he also knew about all the drama surrounding her and Rachel's rather unusual reunion, this left him wondering about what Shelby was truly like. He had met her a handful of times, once on account of the fact that her students had trashed his choir rom and the other was to try and straighten out her relationship with Rachel. These two encounters with Shelby left him a bit uneasy, he did not particularly like her and she did not particularly like him. He thought that her teaching style was unnecessarily harsh; she was known to make her student's cry, and even some of her fellow faculty members on certain occasions. There not liking each other had never been a problem until now because Rachel had asked them both to help her with an audition for the Interlochen summer camp. Will wondered how this would turn out, he felt really intimidated by Shelby but he promised himself he wouldn't show it. He was currently siting in the parking lot of Carmel high school, they would have worked at McKinley but Shelby had insisted on working at Carmel because of their state of the art auditorium. Will sat in his car, he looked around the parking lot and then down at the dash board, it read 3:02 he grabbed his briefcase got out of his car and walked into the school.

Shelby POV

Shelby was currently sitting at her place dead center of the auditorium at her director's podium. She was not excited about this meeting, of course she was ecstatic that Rachel wanted her help especially since auditions were her forte, but she was rather off put by the fact that Rachel had also asked Will to help her. Shelby would have preferred to work one on one with Rachel and to not have any other input. But that wasn't the real reason she was irritated. Shelby didn't like Will, at all. She found that he babied his students and did not push them to their full potential. She also thought that he was way to involved in his students personal lives. She still had no idea how he found out about the whole issue between her and Rachel, and she would most defiantly have preferred that he kept out of it, but he didn't and that made her mad. Shelby looked up and saw Will enter the auditorium and start to walk down towards her. She rolled her eyes and groaned to herself.

"Great, now I'm alone with him." Shelby thought as she looked down to check her phone and quickly texted Rachel to ask her she would be arriving.

"Hey" Will said setting his briefcase down and taking a seat next to Shelby "Long time, no see."

"Yes" Shelby said in an annoyed tone, she stood up and started to shuffle the papers that were out on the table in front of her, blatantly paying no attention to Will at all.

"So do we have a game plan for when Rachel gets here?" Will asked standing up and slowly gravitating towards Shelby, "I'm sure you have had a lot more experience with this stuff than I have."

"I thought she could sing her audition pieces and we could give some feed back then maybe do some scene work." Shelby replied.

"Great" Will said

"Look, I'm sure you know that I don't really like you, so I want to be perfectly clear, I am only hear because Rachel asked me to be, if it had been anyone else I wouldn't have come. " Shelby stated blatantly.

"Great" Will repeated in a less cheerful tone than before. "This is going to be a long night he thought to himself."

"Hey, sorry I'm late." Rachel apologized as she skipped down to the director's podium where Shelby and Will were standing. "I got caught in traffic on the drive from Lima, I hope I didn't keep you waiting to long."

"No, not at all." Shelby said, as she gave Rachel a tight hug. "'How was school?"

"All of my classes are fine but, there has been so much drama in glee lately, I'm sure Mr. Shue has told you all about it." Rachel replied happily, Shelby quietly groaned as she shot a menacing glance at Will.

"Well, lets get started" Shelby said, "Rachel why don't you perform you audition song."

"Sure," Rachel said, "I think I am going to sing Don't Rain On My Parade."

"That is a great choice!" Will said, "I'm sure you will blow the judges away with that song, you always nail it."

"Are you kidding?" Shelby retorted, "Rachel, don't you have anything else? I know you are great at that song, but don't you think you should expand your horizons?"

"Why are you dismissing her song choice? She should sing something she is confident with." Will said getting a bit defensive.

"She has a great voice, she should be confident in anything she sings, I am merely suggesting that she should try a different song." Shelby shot back.

"I'll just sing a different song if you guys are going to argue over it so much, geez." Rachel said awkwardly, breaking the staring match between Shelby and Will.

"Why don't you go down to the stage, ill turn the lights on." Shelby said. As Rachel made her way down to the stage, Will and Shelby sat down, one a couple seats away from each other. Will glanced over at Shelby, she caught him looking so he turn turned away quickly.

"Since I won't be singing Don't Rain on My Parade, I am going to sing Reflection from Mulan". Rachel said with a microphone in hand.

"Huh, interesting song choice." Shelby said under her breath, Will furrowed his brow at this remark as Rachel started to sing.

Look at me,  
>I may never pass for a perfect bride, or a perfect daughter.<br>Can it be,  
>I'm not meant to play this part?<br>Now I see, that if I were truly to be myself,  
>I would break my family's heart.<p>

Who is that girl I see, staring straight back at me?  
>Why is my reflection someone I don't know?<br>Who is that perfect bride?  
>It's not me, though I've tried.<br>When will my reflection show, who I am, inside?  
>How I pray, that a time will come,<br>I can free myself, from their expectations  
>On that day, I'll discover someway to be myself,<br>and to make my family proud.  
>They want a docile lamb,<br>No-one knows who I am.  
>Must there be a secret me,<br>I'm forced to hide?  
>Must I pretend that I am someone else for all time?<br>When will my reflection show, who I am inside?

As the last note rang out through the auditorium, a silly grin spread across Rachel's face. Shelby smiled, she knew Rachel's enormous potential and she and Will both applauded.

"Rachel, that was amazing, the best you have ever done!" Will said ecstatically "You sing like that in your audition and I am sure that you will get accepted!"

"Thanks Mr. Shue," Rachel replied, "Mom? What do you think?"

Shelby was a take aback a little, she defiantly wasn't expecting Rachel to address her as mom, she sat up a little straighter in her chair. "I was good, but you still need to work on your breath support, and I think your over acting, I am all for dramatic interpretation but tone it down a bit." Shelby said, her tone wasn't menacing but it was still stern.

"Really?" Will said looking at Shelby from a couple seats down, "I thought her acting was fine?"

"If you are going to contradict everything I say, there is no point in us both being here. I want her to improve her singing I'm not going to baby her along." Shelby shot back hotly, making sure to send a death glare towards Will. Rachel stood awkwardly on the stage as Will and Shelby bickered from their seats, it was like two six year olds arguing over who was going to be the line leader. Finally, Rachel interrupted their argument,

"Can we continue working now? It's getting late." Shelby and Will who initially had their backs to the stage immediately stopped arguing whipped around to face Rachel.

"Of course, lets continue," Shelby said, and Will nodded in agreement. The rest of the evening was spent is awkward silence as the two adults would occasionally give their opinions, and one would roll their eyes at the other.

"Bye Mr. Shue! See you tomorrow." Rachel said as the three gathered their things to go.

"Goodnight Rachel, Shelby." Will replied, turning to leave the auditorium.

"Mom, what was going on tonight?" Rachel asked, turning to Shelby.

"I have no idea what you are talking about." Shelby said, a blank expression lay across her face.

"You know exactly what I am talking about, you kept arguing with Mr. Shue, do you not like him or something?" Rachel said.

"Well, no, I don't particularly like him." Shelby stated as she closed her purse and got her other bags.

"Why not?" Rachel asked, "He's really nice, I thought you would get along fine. Give me one good reason to not like him."

"Well… I…" Shelby sputtered, she was blanking, but she knew she had a reason.

"I think it's just the sexual tension between you too." Rachel said laughing to herself as she started to walk away.

"EXCUSE ME?" Shelby said, taken completely by shock with a disgusted look on her face, "That is completely absurd, there is no way that I will ever…" Rachel cut her off.

"You know what I am talking about, don't lie" Rachel smiled, once again laughing.

"I can't believe that even crossed your mind." Shelby said with a groan, and the two walked out of the auditorium.

**A/N I know things are getting off to kind of a slow start but they will heat up.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Shelby POV

Shelby sat at home grading papers with wine in hand. It had already been two days since Rachel had made the comment about her and Will having sexual tension and it was bothering her, she couldn't stop thinking about it. She knew that the accusation was extremely far fetched, but she after pondering it for a couple of days she started to half believe it. Shelby wasn't going to deny that Will was an attractive man, he wasn't just attractive either he was extremely good looking. These thoughts led her to wonder what it would be like to have someone romantically in her life. The last time she had a boyfriend was in high school, since then she had convinced herself that chasing after men was just a waste of her time. But now she couldn't help but think about what it would be like to have someone, deep down she craved the special connection that she had been denying herself for years.

"Shelby, get yourself together" She thought to herself "I can't keep thinking about a man who irritates the shit out of me."

Will POV

Will sat at his desk at McKinley, he thought about his most recent encounter with Shelby. He swore he didn't remember her to be so ruthless. As his thoughts drifted off, he started to think more and more about her, he had always noticed her dark green eyes, especially whenever she gave him the stare which she usually did. He also noticed that she always tucked her dark chestnut hair behind her left ear, he didn't know why he knew that. The more he thought the more he considered calling her, maybe asking her out to drinks. Part of him was just lonely but the other part of him wanted to get on her good side. He knew that beneath all of her layers of emotionlessness there was a woman who was alone and perhaps even hurting a little, he had seen it when she first met Rachel, how lost she was. He wanted to fix that. So he picked up his phone and dialed her number, as the phone rang, he took a deep breath,

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea." He thought to himself as Shelby picked up the Phone.

"Hello?" She answered, "Can I help you with something? Is it Rachel?"

"Hi, Shelby, Rachel is fine, I was just hoping to talk to you." Will said a little bashfully.

"Oh, I just saw it was you on the caller ID, I assumed it had to do with Rachel, otherwise I don't know why you would be calling me." Shelby said.

"I know we never really got off to a great start," Will said, "But I was hoping that maybe we could go out to coffee sometime, or drinks, I'm going to be honest its not great when you know Shelby Corcoran doesn't like you."

"Um, ok, sure." Shelby said, "When are you free? I am actually free tonight if that works."

"Yeah, that sounds great, Lima Bean 7:00?" Will asked in a sunnier mood.

"That works, see you then." Shelby said and they both hung up. Will leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head with a large smile across his face.

Shelby POV

Shelby couldn't figure out why she was so nervous. She knew Will perfectly well, but this meeting was different, This wasn't a meeting to hash out details for the upcoming show choir completion or an awkward rehearsal with someone she didn't particularly like, Will had asked her out because he was genuinely interested in her. Shelby was feeling vulnerable for once in her life and she didn't like it. She was sitting in a booth at the Lima Bean, ten minuets early, a black coffee held tightly in the grasp of her perfectly manicured fingers. Will walked in looking around, he saw her and smiled, and he made his way over to the booth with a coffee in hand.

" How's it going?" He said, sliding into the seat across from her.

"It's been fine, and you?" Shelby replied, looking at him directly, she noticed a softness that she had never seen in him before, something tender about him.

"My glee kids have been going crazy, I assigned them each duet partners, but none of them are happy with who I chose for them to be with." He said running his hand through he curls, he sighed, "I'm sure you deal with stuff like that all the time. I must ask you how do you do it? You choir runs so effortlessly."

Shelby laughed, "I don't give away my secrets that easily. It took me years to gain control of Vocal Adrenaline, but once they respect you, they will listen, trust me."

You know I hear all the horror stories about you, you've got quite the reputation," Will smirked taking a sip of his coffee, "Any truth to that?"

Shelby sighed, "I don't consider myself to be too harsh, I'm sure I've crossed the line at one point or another but mostly I just make sure that I am understood, I'm not there to play games and mess around, if my team wants to win, they have to put in the work. At the end of the day I just want the best for my students, maybe I go about it differently than other teachers I don't know."

They talked and talked, they discussed everything from upcoming competitions to politics, the conversation flowed naturally between them. Shelby couldn't help but notice Will's movements, his constant playing with his coffee cup or how we held his head in his hands, she thought it was adorable.

"So how has Rachel been?" Shelby inquired, "I haven't been able to see her much since well… you know."

"She seems to be doing fine as far as I've noticed," Will replied, "What happened with that whole thing?"

Shelby rubbed her face and her neck, then took a deep breath. "I got scared, I thought she didn't need me, or that she didn't want me as her mother. I don't know I freaked out, I realize now I was hardly prepared for what I got myself into."

"That must be hard," Will said softly, "I can't even imagine going thought that, not knowing your own child."

"It tore me apart for years, it really did." Shelby said, a downcast look in her eyes, "Maybe that's why I am the way that I am, so protected and closed off from everyone. I think that's partially why it was so hard to connect with Rachel, I had been do distant from everyone for so long that as soon as I tried to create a relationship with her I didn't know how." She looked up at Will, she could feel a tears start to form in her eyes but she held them back. "I'm sorry, I'm sure you don't want to hear about all of my problems." Shelby said rubbing her eyes.

"Hey, its fine, that's what I'm here for, to listen." Will said reaching over the table and taking Shelby's hand lightly grasping it in his rubbing it gently with his thumb. Shelby looked down wiping away a stray tear. The rest of the night they talked, and listened intently, hearing equally what each other had to say.

As the Lima Bean began to close, they got up from the booth they had been sitting at for hours.

"Will, thank you so much for this, I didn't realize how bad I needed to talk to someone." Shelby said as they walked out of the coffee shop.

"Of course, anytime you need it, I'll always be around" Will replied. He looked over at her, he could feel her sadness. She smiled a little smile back at him, trying to mask her feelings she didn't want him thinking that she was helpless. He pulled her in for a hug, he held her tightly as she rested her head on his shoulder closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, he stroked her back. After a while they let go, they parted their separate ways and as they walked away she looked back at him and smiled to herself.

A/N I hope you guys liked this chapter! Reviews are always appreciated! Thank you for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

Shelby sat at her desk in her home office grading tests. She rolled her eyes a she marked another test D. For some reason her students had all done terribly on this test, she knew that her class was difficult, but the test results shouldn't be this bad. She looked over and noticed that her phone was lighting up, she was getting a call from Rachel. Shelby furrowed her brow, Rachel rarely called her but she still picked up the phone right away.

"Hey mom!" Rachel said in a cheery tone.

"Hi, Rachel, how are you?" Shelby replied with a smile on her face, she was happy Rachel called her.

"I was wondering if you might want to go out to dinner some time?" Rachel asked, "I haven't seen you in a while."

"I would love to!" Shelby replied "Why don't you come over to my place, I can make you dinner, or you can help me if you would like."

"That sounds great, how does Saturday night work for you?" Rachel asked.

"Saturday at 5:00." Shelby said.

"Yeah, that sounds good. I'll see you then." Rachel said, "Love you mom, see you soon."

Shelby grinned, "Love you too! Be good ok?"

"I will mom." Rachel said and they both hung up.

Finally Saturday night came around. Shelby heard the doorbell ring and she walked briskly over to open the door. Rachel was standing on the porch with a bag of food in hand.

"Hi!" she said rushing forth and giving Shelby a big hug. "I brought some food, I didn't want to show up empty handed."

"Oh good, please come in." Shelby said ushering Rachel into the house, it had been a while since Rachel had last been there. As they started to cook Shelby and Rachel conversed about their days.

"So, I'm just curious, why did you call me, not that I mind at all." Shelby asked.

"Out of the blue after school a couple of days ago Mr. Shue told me I should talk to you, it was really weird." Rachel quipped, "I hadn't talked to you in a while so I decided it would be a good idea to call you."

"So Mr. Shue huh," Shelby remembered saying something to him about her lack of communication with Rachel when they last spoke, "Do you like him? What's he like?"

"All these questions, are you just going to use my information to help Vocal Adrenaline eradicate New Directions?" Rachel said playfully.

"No, I'm just curious," Shelby responded, "He seems… I don't know, weirdly friendly."

"Yeah, he has always been really nice even though he has gone through some tough stuff lately. I don't know why you hate him so much." Rachel said as she began to cut vegetables for the vegan lasagna the two were making.

"I don't hate him." Shelby said leaning against the counter.

"It sure seemed like it the other day when we were working together." Rachel retorted.

"No, he was just getting on my nerves. He isn't that bad." I spoke with him, we have a better understanding of each other now."

"Wait, you spoke with him? When?" Rachel asked, she stopped what she was doing and turned to face her mother.

"The other day… its not that important." Shelby said trying to cove her tracks.

"No, I want to know now, why did you guys talk? Was is about me?" Rachel said getting feisty.

"Don't worry about it, it was nothing." Shelby said avoiding Rachel's question.

"Mom, just tell me _please_." Rachel begged, giving Shelby her puppy dog look. Shelby could never withstand that look and gave in to Rachel.

"We just went out for coffee to talk some things out, really, it's not a big deal." Shelby said as she started working on the lasagna again trying to avoid Rachel's stares. Rachel stood next to Shelby with her mouth gaping open.

"So you went on a date with him!" Rachel practically yelled.

"It most defiantly was_ not _a date!" Shelby said turning red, "Stop asking so many questions, lets finish the lasagna." Rachel laughed at her mother's obvious apprehensiveness. Later that night after they ate their lasagna they sat in Shelby's living room and watched Funny Girl. Rachel covered herself with a blanket and sat closely to Shelby. Shelby put her arm around Rachel, pulling Rachel towards her.

"I think he likes you." Rachel said suddenly.

"Who, Mr. Shue?" Shelby responded inquisitively. "I'm sure he like me fine."

"No, I mean he _likes _you. He _like likes_ you." Rachel insisted.

"Are you saying he has a crush on me?" Shelby said looking at Rachel, "I highly doubt that."

"Believe what you want, I'm just saying that's what I think, you'll see." Rachel said "I think you should at least talk to him again." snuggling into Shelby, Shelby leaned down and kissed her forehead.

"I love you, you silly girl." Shelby said and the two drifted off to sleep.


End file.
